Natural History Museum

This past weekend, we visited the Natural History Museum in London. Currently, most museums in London are free (to promote tourism), which means tourists. A lot of them. We were a bit worried that it would be too crowded to enjoy the museum, being a Saturday afternoon, but due to the glorious weather that was bestowed on England this last week, we were some of the few silly people indoors. 

See? Gorgeous Day!

 To me, the best part about this museum is the building. I think it looks like a new old building...Like, it was built in 1881 (which it was) but they have a person on staff whose whole job consists of pressure washing the stones. What a job that would be.

 When you enter through the main entrance, this is what you see. More beautiful stone work, and a dinosaur named Dippy. Now, it is quite genius what they have done here. See, the museums are free but they still request donations. We visited the British Museum and the Tate Modern, and in both they just had coffers for dropping in a few pounds. At the Natural History Museum, however, after donating a few pounds you get some lights shined on Dippy in your honor. More money, you get to pick the color. Even more? You get a roar. Obviously aimed at hooking the interest of children, but I must say I was tempted..

The Natural History Museum is set up in different "zones". They are (summarizing):

Red Zone: Earth Lab, Geology

Blue Zone: Dinosaurs, Mammals, Human Biology, other animals

Green Zone: Birds, Ecology, Minerals, Evolution

Orange Zone: Darwin Centre, Wildlife Garden

We arrived about 2 hours before the museum was closing, so we only had time to visit the Blue Zone and some of the Orange. Part of the Orange zone, as well as part of the Red are only open to reserved tour groups (for a fee, of course). 

Dinosaurs

The dinosaur exhibit is, from what I observed, their most popular. It is intricately arranged on two levels (not floors, because the second level is a scaffolded level above the first). The top level provides you with views of skeletons (full and partial) suspended above the ground.

 The highlight of the exhibit is the animatronic T-Rex. On a slow day, the dino senses where you are, and will roar and follow you with it's eyes. Pretty nifty. Cue a few squealing kids.

After you see the T-Rex, the exhibit becomes very educational. Examples of animal tracks and how they hunt, bone structures and possible colorations, even how dinosaurs are viewed in the media and possible theories about how they became extinct. Colorful and interesting, it is well constructed for inquisitive children, and nerdy adults.

Mammals and Other Animals

Next we moved through the mammal area, which was quite beautifully and artistically constructed. Unfortunately for you, I dislike stuffed, dead animals, so I took no photos of the area. Google it if you really want to see it. The picture below is of the whale room, and other than the bones, the animals are not real (hence the photo). Look how tiny the man is compared to the whale! Apparently, they built the whale from the outside in, and inside there are cigarette butts and a phone book, left over by the workers. That's quite a tale! (haha sorry, had to :-)

Human Bodies

The human bodies exhibit was interesting, but confusing to get around and looked like it hadn't been updated in many a year. Lots of games and interactive displays, but most were broken. Here is an example of a game- "Staying Alive"! Yes. You are given a person who is running, and you have to regulate their breathing, sweating, and water intake. Not going to lie, my runner died within 30 seconds. I don't really know what that teaches children, but I guess it's no worse than Grand Theft Auto.

Darwin Centre

Another section we visited was the Darwin Centre- at least the part you didn't need to pay to see. It is the newest section of the museum, and obviously the most funded. The exhibit was built in the "cocoon", an oval white building (inside a building) with multiple floors. An elevator takes you to the top, and the exhibits follow a ramp down to bottom.  It is interesting, but not really kiddy. A lot of technology and shiny things and real specimens. The interactive aspects, though, are a bit dry and confusing (yes, even for us).  

Now, I like museums, but I cannot walk around for hours and hours. Since we arrived late in the afternoon, we wandered for about 2 hours, then it was closing time.  While there was quite a bit we didn't see, it was ok with me (new sandals+museum= lots of blisters). We will be going again, though, because some of the best parts are the ones you don't get to see for free.. which is not surprising at all. Giant squid, giant sequoia, wildlife garden- definitely enough things to make another trip worth it. Not to mention the fact that on the road with the museum there are a few others (all also free). Looks like we are going to need to get up a little earlier to make a full day of it!